


A Witch's Trial

by nathans_tales



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Angst, F/F, Semi-graphic violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-19 04:33:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13116117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nathans_tales/pseuds/nathans_tales
Summary: The group fights against time when one of their own is severely wounded in battle.





	A Witch's Trial

“Hey, my cooking isn’t _that_ bad,” Alistair argued, turning back to face the accusing party and nearly stumbling over a tree root.

“First of all, yes it is. Second, please don’t kill yourself before we reach Redcliffe, okay? We’re hardly an hour out of camp and I don’t wanna drag your arse the rest of the way,” Erathan teased. Leliana stifled a laugh as Alistair’s cheeks flooded red.

“Was my stew really that bad last night?” he asked.

“That was supposed to be stew?” Erathan replied, actually starting to feel bad for her companion. She heard a quiet laugh from the dark-haired witch at the back of the group and cracked a smile of her own. Alistair sighed and turned back to walk ahead. “I’m just teasing you, Alistair! It’s not like any of us are any better, except maybe Wynne. I wasn’t so sure of the bread rolls Leliana made the other night either.”

“Hey!” Leliana protested, poking Erathan’s side. The elf laughed and pushed herself onto the tips of her toes to place a kiss to her lover’s cheek before intertwining their hands together. She heard an annoyed groan from behind her and turned to look back at Morrigan.

“Aw don’t be jealous, Morrigan; you can hold my other hand!” Erathan offered with a grin, holding out her hand.

Morrigan scoffed, “I’m quite alright without all the touching, thank you.”

“Suit yourself,” Erathan replied, shrugging.

They walked in silence as the trees passed them by, bird calls and snapping twigs the only disruptions. As her mind wandered to what she hoped to accomplish in Redcliffe and the warmth of Leliana’s palm pressed against her own, Erathan almost missed the sudden loss of the bird calls; almost.

Silence settled around them like a cage.

 _“Ambush!”_ she called out, reaching for her daggers just as an arrow flew past her face. She ducked to the side of the small forest opening they found themselves in, scanning the area for unfamiliar faces.

Alistair was already slamming his shield into one of the bandits, sending them backwards into a tree. Morrigan sent a strike of lightning into the chest of a bandit who was rushing towards her, Leliana following with an arrow through the heart of another. Erathan spotted an archer aiming for Alistair’s back and quickly moved to dig her blade into their stomach before they could release the arrow.

She picked off another bandit before she heard a sharp cry from across the opening, the voice painfully familiar. Erathan turned and saw Leliana collapse to the forest floor, clutching her side, a bandit standing behind her with a bloody knife in hand.

Erathan froze, her blood running cold. Her eyes locked onto Leliana’s crumpled form and she suddenly felt a wave of horrified rage flood through her. Seeing red, she rushed towards the bandit.

Before the bandit could move to block her strike, Erathan’s blades were buried deep within their chest. She forced the blades outwards, slicing their chest open. As they fell with a strangled cry, Erathan turned to block a hit from an incoming sword. As she pushed back against the imposing blade with one of her own, she swung the other down to connect with the bandit’s stomach and tear through soft flesh.

When the final bandit fell, Erathan dropped to her knees beside Leliana and gently eased her onto her back from her hunched position. “Leliana how bad is it? Let me check,” Erathan frantically asked, reaching for where blood seeped through Leliana’s fingers.

“I’m okay, it’s fine,” Leliana insisted through clenched teeth, but her eyes closed tightly as her shaking hand was pried from her side. Erathan’s own hands quaked as she tried to gauge the damage. The blade had slipped between the panels of Leliana’s armor, entering just beneath her ribcage and pushing up towards her lungs. Alistair dropped to his knees on the other side of Leliana.

“What happened? What should we do?” he asked, hands hovering over her without purpose. Leliana whimpered and tried to grab for her wound again, but gasped and pulled away at the contact.

“I-I don’t know, Morrigan I need you to heal her!” Erathan cried, turning to find the witch. Morrigan stood apart from the group, looking stunned and uncertain.

“I’m not a healer, I only know a few limited spells. You would need Wynne to—”

“Morrigan _please!_ Wynne’s back at camp and you need to heal this wound enough so Leliana can make it back,” Erathan pleaded, the fear in her voice leaving no room for argument.

Leliana groaned suddenly, sucking in a sharp breath as more blood seeped from her side. 

“Leliana hold on, you have to hold on,” Erathan begged. Leliana’s breaths grew weaker and more frantic. “Leliana come on, no, _please_.” Before she could yell for Morrigan again, the mage was at her side and pushing her away to take her place.

“Alistair, reach over and apply pressure to the wound,” Morrigan commanded, her hands already glowing with magic. Alistair did as he was told; the color drained from his face when Leliana cried out in response.

“Leliana this is going to hurt; are you ready?” Morrigan asked, voice softer. Leliana nodded and clenched her fists.

As Morrigan worked, Erathan knelt by her lover’s head to run her fingers through her red locks, murmuring encouraging words and pressing kisses to her forehead. As the minutes passed Erathan lost herself in her own mantra of comforting words, trying to ignore the pained screams.

“This is all I can do,” Morrigan finally stated, resting back on her heels. The bleeding had stopped and drawn out whimpers had replaced the screaming, but Leliana’s wound was still open and threatening.

“You two start carrying her back to camp, I’ll run ahead and alert Wynne,” Erathan directed, only stopping briefly to take one more look at Leliana before turning and running in the direction they had come.

* * *

As Erathan forced her legs to go faster, pushing through the fire in her lungs, she couldn’t stop picturing Leliana hunched over, blood covering her side. She could still hear Leliana’s labored breathing and shook her head to push it away. Leliana would be okay. She had to be.

* * *

Erathan finally arrived at camp, crashing through the tree line just beside Morrigan’s tent. _“Wynne!”_ She cried, still sprinting towards the elderly mage’s tent. “Wynne!”

Wynne emerged from her tent just as Erathan stumbled to a stop in front of it. “What are you doing back here?” she asked, brow furrowed. She looked around and realized Erathan was alone. “Where are the others? Has something happened?”

“Yes,” the elf answered, stopping briefly to catch her breath, “we were ambushed nearly an hour into our journey. Leliana is severely wounded; Alistair and Morrigan are bringing her back right now. I wanted to get here ahead of them so you could prepare. You have to help Leliana!”

“Goodness, that is terrible. Of course I’ll help her; can you describe her wound?”

Time seemed to crawl by as Erathan described where the blade had entered and how much Morrigan had been able to heal it, and helped Wynne prepare her tent for the healing process. Wynne seemed silently surprised that Morrigan had helped Leliana; she knew how cold the other mage often was to the girl. Just when Erathan thought she would go mad with worry, Morrigan entered the camp clearing, Alistair a few steps behind with Leliana in his arms. Leliana’s body hung slack, her head rocking with Alistair’s steps.

“Finally!” Erathan sighed, running over to meet them. She felt ill as she saw that Leliana had fallen unconscious.

“Bring her here, to my tent,” Wynne ordered, opening the flaps of her tent for Alistair. He carried her in and gently laid her onto the bedroll. When he came back out, his whole body was shaking; from exhaustion or nerves, Erathan couldn’t tell—likely both. She rushed past him towards the tent, but Wynne held out a hand to stop her.

“Stay out here,” she directed.

“But—no, I need to help,” Erathan stammered.

“I know you’re concerned, but I need space to work and it won’t help to have you worrying over her the entire time,” Wynne explained. “She’ll be okay,” she said gently. She turned and entered the tent then, leaving Erathan standing outside baffled.

The warden contemplated entering the tent anyways, but knew it would only distract Wynne from helping Leliana. When she finally managed to collect herself she walked over to where Alistair sat, hunched over with his head in his hands, and sat beside him.

Almost immediately, Alistair sat upright and began to apologize. “I tried to move faster, I’m so sorry, she lost consciousness about halfway here, I’m so sorr—”

“Alistair stop,” Erathan interrupted. “I came to thank you; you helped save her.”

Alistair stared back for a moment, as if in disbelief. “You really think so? I just carried her, I couldn’t keep it from hurting her.”

“But you helped, you really did. Thank you so much,” Erathan reassured him, her voice starting to break. She surprised herself and leaned in for a hug, wrapping her arms around his broad frame. Alistair hesitantly returned the embrace, stunned by this act of friendship. They stayed like that for a few moments before Erathan pardoned herself and walked over to the tent her dearest friend kept on the edge of the camp, so far from everyone else.

She found Morrigan sitting inside her tent, frustratedly flipping through one of her many grimoires. She stepped inside to no protest, so she sat beside the witch.

“What’re you doing?” she asked.

Morrigan continued to flip through the book, muttering to herself. When she finally found what she was looking for, she sat back with a sigh. “There, finally. It should be considerably easier to find healing spells, don’t you think?”

Erathan looked at her, confused. “Um, yes, I suppose. Why are you looking up healing spells now? Wynne has Leliana.”

Morrigan rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’m well aware. But what happened reminded me that I must broaden my knowledge of healing magic. ‘Twas foolish of me to rely on Wynne to be the sole competent healer, and I won’t make the mistake of being caught off guard again.”

“That’s nice Morrigan, but you don’t have to—” Erathan was cut off by Morrigan’s muttering as she began to read the spells before her. “Morrigan,” she tried again. _“Morrigan,”_ she said once more, reaching forward to still her friend’s hand as it skimmed down the page. Morrigan stopped and looked at her, eyes edging on anger.

“What? What could you possibly need that would require you to interrupt my work? I need to learn this; I need to be able to help you!” the mage snapped.

Erathan hesitated, at a momentary loss for words. “Morrigan, you did help us. I came here to thank you; you saved Leliana.”

When Erathan met Morrigan’s gaze, she saw uncertainty in her eyes.

“Just barely,” Morrigan said. “I could only manage to stop the bleeding, what good will that do us in more dire circumstances? No, I must learn this, I must improve. What if someone else becomes wounded too far from camp and I can’t help them? What if I can’t help _you?_ ” Morrigan asked, her voice becoming frantic.

Erathan grew quiet and laid her hand on Morrigan’s arm. “You already can help us. You did help us. You did what you could to heal Leliana, and I would trust you in the field to heal me as well. Yes it would be good to learn more healing spells, but you are already more helpful than you’re giving yourself credit for. I trust you, Morrigan. I owe you more than I can express, for saving Leliana. Please don’t worry about not being able to save us… to save me. I know you could.”

They sat in silence until Erathan realized Morrigan didn’t have a response, so she left her to her studies.

She paced anxiously around the camp, eyes locked on her feet as they sank into the muddy ground. Eventually Wynne emerged from the tent and beckoned her over.

“The wound is healed and I gave her some potions to ease the pain. She’ll make a full recovery,” Wynne stated. Erathan bent over and braced herself against her knees as a wave of relief hit her. She thanked Wynne and entered the tent, quickly making her way to Leliana’s side. She kneeled beside her lover and gently grabbed her hand. Leliana opened her eyes and cracked a smile when she saw who it was.

“Birdie,” Erathan whispered, tears flooding into her voice. “How do you feel?”

“I’ve felt better, but I’ve also felt worse,” Leliana answered with a sigh. “The pain has subsided. Mostly,” she said, grimacing.

Erathan squeezed her hand and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “I was so worried. The wound was so deep.”

Leliana gave a short laugh. “It was, but I’ve been through worse. I need to thank Alistair and Morrigan.”

“I just thanked them; they’re both a bit shaken, I should let them know you’re okay.”

Leliana raised an eyebrow. “Morrigan is shaken? At my expense? That’s quite the twist,” she said with a smirk.

Erathan smiled. “She likes to pretend she doesn’t care, but I know she does. She just has her own ways of showing it.” Leliana hummed her agreement and Erathan ran a hand through her red locks. Leliana leaned into the comforting touch, closing her eyes. Before Erathan realized it, tears were streaming down her cheeks and she had to stifle a sob.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” Leliana asked, opening her eyes.

“Leliana, I… I was so scared,” Erathan whispered. “I thought I might lose you.”

“Oh _mon cher_ ,” Leliana started, trying to sit up but falling back onto the bedroll with a pained gasp.

“No, no don’t sit up,” Erathan murmured, wiping her face and moving to lay down beside her lover. “I just, I don’t know what I would do without you, birdie. We’ve come so far, and I never thought—” she stopped and let out a shuddering breath. “I’m so happy you’re okay.”

Leliana reached over and caressed Erathan’s cheek, pressing their foreheads together. “I’m here, love. I’m not going anywhere,” she whispered.

Erathan leaned in and kissed her softly before carefully wrapping her arms around her. She stayed there, focusing on the rise and fall of Leliana’s chest as daylight faded to an end.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on my tumblr (nathans-tales.tumblr) for aquarliyus.tumblr: http://nathans-tales.tumblr.com/post/168798672014/ok-so-i-was-scrolling-though-your-blog-no-shame


End file.
